Norton farmer, Terry Ford of Gowrie Farm, who was in his
mid-fifties, wasbludgeoned to death sometime in the early hours of this
morning, Monday 18thMarch 2002.

Just before midnight last night, a
group of about twenty, suspected toconsist of settlers and war veterans,
approached the homestead area. MrFord, who was alone in the house,
immediately made a report to the Nortonpolice station and alerted a
neighbouring farmer. At 02:15hrs this morning,Mr Ford contacted the
neighbour to say that there still had been no policeresponse and that he
would remain vigilant and call for assistance ifnecessary. Mr Ford's
battered body was found in the early hours of thismorning.

This farm
is in vicinity of Winsor Farm, where looting took place last weekand the
farmer and his family were forced to vacate. Also in the same area,the
homestead at Wilbered Farm, owned by an 81 year old cancer victim who isaway
receiving medical treatment, was completely looted of all belongings.These
incidents have been reported to the police at all levels. Of thegroup of
approximately 70 looters involved in these incidents, 3 have
beenarrested.

The Norton district is controlled by War Veteran
leader, Mrs Rusike. Thewar veteran base commander on Gowrie Farm is Cde
Wamba. Both are known tohave been involved in the previous two looting
incidents.

White farmer executed in upsurge of violence in Zimbabwe

By Angus Shaw, AP

18 March 2002

A white farmer was killed today in escalating
post-election violence as President Robert Mugabe met the leaders of South
Africa and Nigeria to discuss Zimbabwe's disputed presidential poll.

Several independent observer groups have condemned the last week's elections
as deeply flawed and unfairly structured to ensure Mugabe's re-election.

South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo
met Mr Mugabe to discuss the conduct of the election and the future of Zimbabwe
after two years of widespread violence blamed mainly on ruling party militants.
Mr Mbeki was later expected to meet with opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mr Mbeki, Mr Obasanjo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard are to meet
in London tomorrow to discuss possible sanctions against Zimbabwe by the
Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth observer mission said the election did not adequately allow
voters to freely express their choice. Industrialized Commonwealth nations have
called for Zimbabwe's expulsion for abusing the group's charter on democratic
rights.

Since Mr Mugabe was declared the winner of the elections last week, white
farmers have reported on upsurge in violence in farming districts.

The white farmer was shot dead near Norton, about 30 20 miles west of Harare
in an attack by suspected ruling party militants, the Commercial Farmers Union
said.

He was the tenth white farmer killed since militants began often violent
occupations of white-owned land in two years ago.

Terry Ford, 51, contacted neighbors late Sunday and reported a group of about
20 militants were besieging his home, union spokeswoman Jenni Williams said.
Police reported his death around dawn.

Mr Ford smashed his car into a farm fence to make a getaway but was dragged
from the vehicle and shot in the head against a tree in an execution-style
killing, the union said.

"There is great concern there has been more activity in the last week in
terms of evicting farmers and looting homes" across the country, Ms Williams
said.

White farmers have been accused of providing transport and logistical backing
for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition to Mr Mugabe's
rule.

Since 2000, more than 1,700 white farms were occupied and the government
announced plans to nationalize about 4,500 white-owned properties, 95 per cent
of land owned by whites, for redistribution to landless blacks.

The opposition, which narrowly lost parliamentary elections in June 2000,
accused Mr Mugabe of seizing land to shore up his waning support and unleashing
a campaign of terror to intimidate opposition supporters. At least 150 people
have died and tens of thousands have been left homeless, most of them opposition
supporters, human rights groups said.

HARARE,
March 18 — A white farmer was shot dead near his homestead early onMonday,
apparently while trying to escape an attack by settlers and warveterans, a
farm community spokeswoman said. It was the first attack on a white
farmer since Robert Mugabe wasreelected last week in presidential election
marred by violence and chargesof vote rigging.

Commercial
Farmers' Union spokeswoman Jenni Williams told ReutersTerry Ford of the farm
Gowrie, about 40 km (30 miles) southwest of Harare,was found shot through
the head. ''There is evidence of a bullet exit wound from the head,''
she said. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed that Ford had
beenmurdered, but said he had no further details. ''Our men are on the
groundright now investigating,'' he said. Ford was the 10th white
farmer to be killed since landless blacksbegan with government sanction to
seize white-owned farms two years ago. Williams said Ford was alone on
his farm and called for help early onMonday, saying he was being threatened
by farm settlers and veterans of theformer Rhodesia's 1970s liberation
war.

ALONE AT HOME ''Mr Ford contacted police and neighbours,
but he did not get muchhelp because some of his neighbours have moved out of
the area. He was alonein his home and he said he would remain vigilant,''
Williams said. ''At 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) this morning his domestic worker
reported forduty and discovered his body lying next to a tree outside the
house. Thereis evidence that Mr Ford was trying to drive out of the farm,''
she added. Williams said there was no immediate word on what led to
the killing. The government accuses the Commercial Farmers Union,
which mainlyrepresents whites, of using the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change(MDC) as a front for its effort to maintain white economic
dominance. About 20,000 commercial farms have been abandoned by white
owners orare occupied by black settlers. Mugabe said at his
inauguration on Sunday he had delivered ''astunning blow'' to Britain and
said he would accelerate the seizure ofwhite-owned farms for redistribution
to landless blacks.

FIGURES announced by Tobaiwa
Mudede, the Registrar-General, for thepresidential election do not tally
with the official poll data provided bythe Electoral Supervisory Commission
(ESC), it has emerged.

As a result, the MDC election directorate has
stepped up its campaign tocontest the outcome of last weekend’s presidential
poll.

The revelations further strengthen claims by the MDC of the
illegitimacy ofthe process and outcome of the election.

Professor
Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general, yesterday confirmed theanomaly
and said the discrepancy in the figures was disturbing.

“It is clear from
the conflicting figures that about half a million votesfrom nowhere went to
Zanu PF,” Ncube said.

“We are still considering all available avenues to
solve the anomaly. Thereis the legal option or it can be solved on the
political arena - that can beon streets and in factories -until the struggle
is over.”

The MDC election directorate headed by Paul Themba-Nyathi, the
MP for GwandaNorth, says on Monday 11 March the ESC provided it with
official informationon the total voter statistics from individual
constituencies, except forChitungwiza and Harare.

“However, the
information on total vote counts within constituencies fromthe ESC varies
significantly from the total constituency vote countsannounced by the
Registrar-General in the presidential election results on12 March,” the MDC
election directorate said.

“While the total national vote counts are
similar for both agencies, theRegistrar-General counts are widely different
from the ESC counts at thelevel of individual constituencies.

“The
differences between the two have been applied to either reduce the MDCvote
count or increase the Zanu PF count or both.”

According to figures
supplied to the MDC, significant differences are foundacross more than 50
constituencies. The adjusted vote counts using the ESCfigures bear closer
relationship to the voting patterns in the 2000parliamentary
election.

“Some of the most significant differences occurred in
constituencies whereviolence was high and polling agents were obstructed in
their duties. Theseare Zaka East and West, Gokwe, Mberengwa and Mutasa,” the
MDC electiondirectorate said.

Some of the “manipulations” the MDC
claim are shown in constituencies pickedat random, as illustrated in the
table on The MDC did not accept the resultof the election which was won by
Mugabe.

It cited irregularities such as the denial of the right to vote
to more than360 000 voters in Harare and Chitungwiza alone, and Zanu PF
youths’prevention of the deployment of MDC polling agents in 52 percent of
therural polling stations as providing further opportunity for electoral
fraud.

It also cites that up to 400 000 people were illegitimately
registeredbetween 10 January and 3 March 2002, and the existence of
severeState-sponsored intimidation, harassment and fear for a period in
excess oftwo years, the “fast-tracking” of legislation negatively impacting
on theelectoral process, disenfranchising voters through the voter
registrationprocess and lack of independence of the ESC as some of the
glaringirregularities.

Thomas Bvuma, the ESC spokesperson, when
contacted on the discrepancy in theelection results figures, said: “I cannot
comment because I do not even havethe figures for the whole
election.”

Mudede could not be reached for comment last night. He did not
answer hismobile phone when he was repeatedly called.

ZANU PF supporters and
war veterans on Friday murdered a security guard atOxford Farm outside
Marondera in the presence of a police constable andseriously assaulted the
farmer for allegedly organising MDC meetings in thearea.

The
security guard, identified only as Darlington, was murdered in coldblood at
one of the torture houses in the area. His body was taken to themortuary at
Borradaile Hospital in the town.

John Rutherford, the farmer, 4 was in
the intensive care unit on Fridaywhere he was being treated for severe
injuries as a result of the brutalassault.

The police in Marondera
refused to comment, saying they were underinstructions not to talk to the
media. But when The Daily News arrived atthe hospital, a policeman
identifying himself only as Assistant InspectorMafu was recording a
statement from Rutherford from his hospital bed.

Rutherford said he did
not have enough information on Darlington’s familybackground as he had only
known him for three months.

About five Zanu PF supporters and war
veterans were waiting outside thehospital, threatening to remove the body
from the mortuary to take it totheir offices in the town.

Rutherford
said that early on Friday morning he was called to the warveterans’ compound
on the farm, where he was accused of giving one of hisworkers a cellphone to
communicate with the MDC on the activities of theillegal settlers on his
farm.

“A youth from the compound said that I had instructed him to burn
down allwar veterans’ houses on Saturday. I denied the charges because I was
notthere and I have no intention whatsoever to disrupt the land
reformprogramme,” he said.

Rutherford said when he denied the charge,
the war veterans’ leader, ObertMakiwa, started to assault him with a hoe
handle. “I was then taken toanother room where I found Darlington. He was
bleeding. We were assaultedtogether,” he said.

Rutherford said his
wife was also brought to the torture room.“As they were assaulting him
Darlington fell on top of my wife and thesettlers realised that his life was
in danger.” He said Makiwa instructedhim to drive Darlington to their
offices in town but he insisted that theyshould go to the hospital
first.

Darlington died on the way to the hospital, Rutherford said. “All
thishappened in the presence of Constable Chikowe. There was no help at all
fromthe police,” Rutherford said.

Darlington’s murder is the second
death in three days after Zanu PFsupporters in Kwekwe killed Funny Mahuni,
an employee at Zimasco, after herefused to release his two daughters to
attend the party’s night rallies inMbizo suburb.

Meanwhile, Nicholas
Chigwende, an MDC activist in Karoi, was tortured bysuspected Zanu PF
supporters last Saturday after they discovered that he wasan MDC polling
agent in the widely- condemned violent presidential election.

Chigwende,
19, was attacked with sharp instruments on the face, head andother parts of
the body and left for dead. His father, Phibion, saidNicholas was admitted
to Karoi Hospital before transfer to the AvenuesClinic in Harare on
Wednesday as his condition deteriorated.

Several cases of
voting irregularities surfaced in Bulawayo during therecent presidential
election.

For example, members of the Zanu PF youth brigade, who
disappeared a fewdays before the election, resurfaced on Saturday, the first
day of theelection, at a polling station at Hugh Beadle Primary School in
Bulawayo,where most were alleged to have voted without being
registered.

When a Daily News crew visited the polling station, the
youths were in theirown queue, a parallel line with the registered voters.
They were brought inin unmarked trucks by officials, one identified by the
MDC polling agent asthe Zanu PF provincial political commissar in
Matabeleland, Saineth Dube.

The presiding officer said he was not aware
of the presence of the youths.He said they had turned away many youths who
were unregistered.According to the MDC polling agent, the youths were
initially not allowed tovote, but he said after the intervention of Dube and
some officials theywere allowed to form their own queue to cast their
votes.

The police confirmed the presence of the youths and said they were
tryingtheir best to keep them from blocking the entrance to the polling
station.

A case of vote-buying surfaced in Lobengula suburb in Bulawayo
Northconstituency when a group of women operating from a house were
allegedlytaking down the names of voters and promising to pay them if they
voted forZanu PF.

A visit to the house revealed that they had a list
of names, and theidentification numbers and addresses of people who had
voted. “This is justfor our records in the district.

We know they are
our members and we are making sure they have all voted. Sowhat do you want
here?” one woman fumed as she hastily gathered the papersin front of
her.

But one of the people they tried to bribe, Ethel Dube, said she was
told tovote for Zanu PF because she would be rewarded after the
election.

“They did not tell us how much we would get. I gave them my
name andpassport number,” said Dube.

SIX teachers at Checheche primary and secondary schools and two
businessmenin Chipinge South on Friday sustained various injuries after they
wereseverely assaulted by a group of suspected Zanu PF
youths.

Supporters of the opposition Zanu which was represented
by Wilson Kumbula,were reportedly among the assailants. The attacks come
barely two days afterMike Madiro, Zanu PF’s chairman in Manicaland, warned
his party would weedout traitors within the party.

The youths accused
the businessmen of funding the MDC. The teachers wereaccused of allegedly
voting for the opposition MDC in the contentiouspresidential election won by
President Mugabe.

In Chipinge South, Mugabe polled 6 954 votes against 18
356 for MorganTsvangirai. Kumbula received a paltry 791 votes in the
constituency.In the same constituency, 313 people voted for Paul Siwela, an
independent,while 229 votes went to Shakespeare Maya of the National
Alliance for GoodGovernance.

A total of 26 643 people cast their
votes in that constituency. The policeand army were called in to restore
order in the constituency after the mobwent berserk, beating up people with
knobkerries, iron bars, chains, sticksand logs.

At a function in
Mutare on Wednesday, Madiro said: “I know that some of youwho are here
celebrating with us voted for the MDC. “We know you all and weare going to
deal with you accordingly. We are not going to tolerate any badapples in our
basket.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a teacher who received
multipleinjuries, said: “The situation here was bad. Zanu PF and Zanu youths
startedbeating up teachers at Checheche primary and secondary schools at
around8am.

They beat up two businessmen, James Moyana and one
Chikukwa. “They attackedanother businessman, Onias Mlambo, but he managed to
escape. Soldiers andthe police were deployed and the situation is now under
control.

Some of the youths were arrested and taken to Chisumbanje police
station.”The teacher said one of his colleagues at Checheche Primary School
couldhardly walk following the severe beatings.

It could not be
immediately established on Friday how many youths werearrested in connection
with the attacks as the police lines at Chisumbanjepolice station were out
of order.

Enock Porusingazi, Zanu PF’s Manicaland provincial chairman,
condemned theattacks and said: “If the Zanu PF youths were involved in this
barbaric act,it’s not in the interest of the party. I strongly condemn that
type ofbehaviour.”

He was remanded out of custody pending sentence.
He was re-arrested lastweek. Kudya sentenced Samuriwo to 30 months in jail,
but suspended 12 monthsconditionally for five years.

Prosecutor
Tendai Hangazha, said on 28 March 2000, Samuriwo approachedprovincial
magistrate Cleopas Kashora, then based at the Harare magistrates’courts, and
asked him to assist in securing the release of his friend, DevonJonathan
Tobva Mambo, who was detained at Harare Central Remand Prisonfacing 32
counts of housebreaking and theft.

He offered the magistrate $2 500. The
magistrate pretended to agree to thescheme but later alerted the police who
set a trap for the warder.Samuriwo returned to Kashora’s office in the
afternoon and apologised afterMambo’s relatives failed to provide the money
for the deal.

Two days later, he went back to Kashora’s office with the
money he hadpromised and Kashora advised him to return later. As soon as
Samuriwo leftthe office, Kashora telephoned the police who set another trap
for him.

Samuriwo later returned and gave the magistrate the money. He
was arrestedby detectives as he left Kashora’s office.

THERE are a
number of crucial players who made it possible yesterday forRobert Mugabe to
stand before Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku who sworehim in at the
beginning of his third term as President of Zimbabwe.

The man at the
centre of Mugabe’s Pyrrhic victory is Tobaiwa Mudede, theRegistrar-General
and a close relative of the President.

The disputed plebiscite is the
sixth national poll he has presided over, inaddition to a host of local
government elections.

Mudede’s record as a partisan and incompetent
public official is welldocumented. Edgar Tekere (1990), Margaret Dongo
(1995), PriscillaMisihairabwi-Mushonga (1996), and the opposition MDC today,
have hadterrible encounters with Mudede’s conduct as a manager of
elections.

The Registrar-General ignores court orders with impunity,
views theopposition as time-wasters and foes. It is not clear to whom he
reportsduring elections. The Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), a
bodyconstitutionally mandated to supervise Mudede’s office during
elections,seems scared of him. The ESC has failed to rein in and censure
Mudede,forcing affected political parties to turn to the courts for relief.
Theentire civil service is at the mercy of Mudede. He picks and chooses
thosehe wants to work with to conduct elections.

The source of
Mudede’s problem is the state of the voters’ roll. Dongo
andMisihairabwi-Mushonga, in separate legal challenges, were the first
toexpose Mudede’s major weaknesses. Their encounter with him exposed how
easyit is to rig an election in favour of Mugabe.

In the case of
Dongo, the High Court found that 13 642 ghost voters casttheir ballots - a
significantly decisive 41 percent of the registered votersin Harare
South.

The ballot papers exceeded the number of voters by 1 025. There
were 600postal votes whose origin could not be traced. Mudede failed to
explain thisanomaly. That was in a simple and far from life-threatening
by-electionconducted when Mugabe’s tenure of office was not under any
threat.

If Mudede could go to such lengths to deal with young Dongo in a
poor,sprawling urban neighbourhood of Harare in the full glare of the world,
sucha man could stop at nothing to save a beleaguered relative from the kind
ofhumiliation Mugabe faced last weekend.

The number of so-called
spoilt papers in these areas of high illiteracy tella separate story. They
were so few, given the supposed high turnout.

No information was given
about the supplementary voters’ roll, usedextensively in the rural areas.
The roll was unavailable to the oppositionand nobody, presumably except
Mudede, inspected it. Nobody knows how manyballot papers were printed and by
whom. Postal ballots remain a mystery. Atotal of 25 could not be accounted
for in Mutare.

The opposition challenged the secrecy around the voters’
roll and constantchanges in the figures. But as fate would have it,
Chidyausiku reservedjudgment. It is curious that the Chief Justice could let
such an importantnational process proceed while he mulled over the arguments
from lawyers.

Observers and voters say there was widespread voter apathy
in most ruralconstituencies. Most of the boxes are strongly believed to have
beenstuffed, especially in areas where opposition election agents
andindependent monitors were chased away.

The chaos and jitters that
followed Sunday’s High Court order extending thevoting time countrywide
unsettled Zanu PF and Mudede.

Some plan was in jeopardy.

The
government ignored the order for five hours and when polling
stationseventually reopened in Harare and Chitungwiza, the police were
called in todisperse voters at 7pm sharp.

In order to command the
respect of all contestants in an election, theRegistrar-General must be
completely above any form of suspicion. Mudedelost that trust and respect
over a decade ago.

Zimbabweans failed to pay sufficient attention to the
Dongo case, otherwisepressure could have been brought on Mudede to go long
before the currentfiasco.

Together with others, Mudede must be held
responsible for whatever happensin the post-election period arising from
Mugabe’s controversial and largelyunrecognised victory.

RAMPAGING Zanu PF
supporters last week set ablaze 24 homes belonging to MDCpolling agents in
Gokwe, soon after the announcement of the results of thepresidential
election.

Blessing Chebundo, the MDC’s acting provincial chairman for
Midlands North,said hundreds of his party supporters had fled to urban
centres following afresh wave of politically-motivated violence.

“The
rowdy Zanu PF youths set ablaze seven homes in Gokwe West and 17 morein
Gokwe East on Wednesday night as they went on a bloody retributionexercise
against MDC supporters,” Chebundo said.

“The attacks are systematic and
it seems Zanu PF youths are targeting mainlyour polling agents because they
openly declared their party allegianceduring the election period. We are
receiving an average of 15 reports ofpolitically-related arson and attacks
on our polling agents in Gokwe sincethe announcement of the election
results,” he said.

The MDC had an average of four polling agents at each
of the 766 pollingstations in the Midlands province.

The majority of
these fled to either Gweru, Kwekwe or Kadoma last weekbecause they were
being trailed and harassed by Zanu PF militants, Chebundosaid.

He
said there was massive intimidation of MDC polling agents, before andduring
the election period, carried out mainly by senior Zanu PF officialsand
police officers working in cahoots with the Zanu PF functionaries.

Zanu
PF provincial chairman for the Midlands, July Moyo, was not availablefor
comment. He was said to be attending President Mugabe’s inauguration
inHarare.

Mugabe polled 1 685 212 votes in a poll ruled by the
Commonwealth observergroup and the Southern African Development Community
parliamentary forum asseriously flawed because of numerous incidents of
violence, vote rigging andconstitutional amendments meant to give the ruling
party an unfair advantageover the opposition MDC.

ZANU PF
youths have taken over the distribution of maize to starvingvillagers in
Masvingo province denying members of the opposition MDC thechance to benefit
from the State-sponsored food aid programme.

The youths have been
deployed at various Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depotsthroughout the
province. Their function appears to supervise thedistribution of food to
thousands of starving villagers.

When The Daily News visited the Masvingo
depot yesterday, youths in partyT-shirts were manning the gates to the
depot. They demanded Zanu PFmembership cards before allowing anyone
entry.

They also stopped lorries and other vehicles loaded with
maize-meal andmaize and questioned whether the grain was going to benefit
Zanu PFsupporters.

Other youths led by their self-styled commander,
Tionei Charumbira, weredeployed inside the GMB premises where they
scrutinise and sometimes reversedecisions passed by official GMB
staff.

“We want to make sure that our enemies do not get food ahead of
oursupporters. Zanu PF is the ruling party and, therefore, its
supportersshould get food first before anyone else. Those who supported the
MDC shouldgo and get their food from Morgan Tsvangirai because what we have
herebelongs to President Mugabe,” Charumbira said.

Officials at the
Masvingo GMB depot yesterday confirmed that Zanu PF youthshad taken over the
distribution of maize but said their role was onlysupervisory. The officials
said the presence of these youths had negativelyaffected the operation of
the parastatal as managers are reduced to merespectators.

“These
youths are being paid by the party, but we do not know the motivebehind such
an arrangement,” said an official who refused to be identified.

“We are
also puzzled by the development.”

In Chivi and Gutu, scores of known MDC
supporters have reportedly beenexcluded from the government-sponsored food
relief programme.

Chiefs have been ordered to give food only to Zanu PF
supporters as thegovernment has no food to give to its
“enemies”.

Hunger and starvation have reached critical levels in Masvingo
as thegovernment has failed to deliver food to the villagers. Maize-meal
suppliesare still erratic in rural and urban areas.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- SO
ROBERT Mugabe stole the election. What did you expect? As this
columnobserved some time ago, he was bound to do whatever it took to stay
inoffice. Not even South Africa's obedient observers were prepared to say
theelection was "free and fair". It wasn't.

President Bush
immediately rejected the result and one supposes thatMugabe's name will now
be added to the list of leaders, like Saddam Husseinand Fidel Castro, upon
whose people the Americans will feel themselvesjustified to inflict unending
misery. It is their manifest destiny.

Britain and the Commonwealth
concur. Symbolic sanctions are a certainty, ifa futile one; a denial of aid
and assistance to the people under Mugabe'sheel are possible, but effective
sanctions are only a distant possibility.

The result, one may assume,
will resemble the campaigns to remove Castro andHussein, ineffectual and
endless. Great Powers are nothing if not patient.

Anyway, they have few
options. Britain's megaphone diplomacy, as somebodyhas brilliantly dubbed
it, has collapsed in a heap. It neither prevented therigging of the
election, nor did it mitigate the violence or preserveBritish
influence.

South Africa did better but has been sullied by the foolish
decision to sendan independent observer mission instead of snuggling safely
into theCommonwealth mission.

The international Press, abandoning all
pretence of objectivity, jeered atpoor old Sam Motsuenyane for declaring
Mugabe's election "legitimate" but Isuspect Tony Blair was delighted to see
South Africa blunder into the frontline.

If we are to believe the
leaks from London, Blair has been perpetually onthe phone, urging Mbeki to
take responsibility for a post-colonial mess thatBritain created but cannot
handle.

The irony is delicious. Mbeki's much-derided "quiet diplomacy"
has preservedaccess to Mugabe (and perhaps even some capacity to influence
him) while theWest, if it abjures brute force, faces the moral dilemma of
whether to helpMugabe by feeding his people, or to starve the peasants in
order to hurtMugabe. Understandably, they try to bully Mbeki into acting as
their cat'spaw.

South Africa's own interest, as everybody
acknowledges or pretends toacknowledge, is to maintain regional stability,
and Mugabe's "victory" hasat least preserved a nasty order for the short
term. He and his army are incharge, able to govern or misgovern as they
will.

Whether a victory for Morgan Tsvangirai would have been as benign
(if thatis the proper word for relative stability) is open to question. The
patternof voting was ominous, with Tsvangirai showing strength among the
minorityMatabele, and Mugabe holding his support in the majority
Shona-speakers. Itis an ancient line of conflict.

Tsvangirai may well
have found in office that he was unable to controlMugabe's army and civil
service, or the "veterans", and the result may havebeen chaotic. But that is
speculation, and it is equally possible that intime Mugabe's misrule will
cause the state to disintegrate anyway.

To maintain stability will
require (swallow hard!) food aid, technicalsupport, credit, and general
assistance which can come only from the West.Mbeki is therefore condemned to
the role of mediator, dealing with theinternational community on Mugabe's
behalf, and with Mugabe on behalf of theinternational community.

It
is a position of risk, but also of power in which he may be able to
forcepolitical concessions from Mugabe in return for humanitarian and
economicaid. The usefulness of "quiet diplomacy" has outlasted the
dubioususefulness of megaphone diplomacy.

So South Africa now finds
itself in a complicated game, compelled to balancethe search for stability
against the ideal of democracy, the humanitarianimperative to help the
people of Zimbabwe against the need to restore therule of law, international
pressure against regional interest, the hopes ofNepad against the threat of
anarchy.

If Mbeki is to succeed he will have to deflect Western
vindictiveness andAmerican military hubris, calm an international Press
imbued with therighteous spirit that burned witches at Salem, and yet try to
nudge Mugabetowards sanity.

I doubt he will find a "solution" but he
may hope gradually to dampen theatmosphere of crisis until the international
Press, bored and disappointed,drifts away to another melodrama.Mar 18
2002 12:00:00:000AM Business Day 1st Edition

------------------------------------------------------------------------ President
Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo are tomeet with
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe later today before flying toLondon for
talks with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.Mbeki, Obasanjo and Howard
are mandated by the Commonwealth Heads ofGovernment Meeting (CHOGM) to
decide what action should be taken after thecontroversial election in
Zimbabwe.

According to the president's spokesman Bheki Khumalo, the
Harare trip wasmerely to give Mbeki an opportunity to meet with both African
leaders beforethe London summit.

He denied that a plan to set up a
government of national unity in Zimbabwewas on the agenda for the
talks.

Mbeki is also expected to hold talks with Movement for Democratic
Changeleader Morgan Tsvangirai, who lost last weekend's presidential
poll.

Mugabe won the first real challenge to his 22-year presidency in a
vote thatWestern observers have described as severely
flawed.

However, many African leaders have rallied behind the Zimbabwe
president,although Mbeki, himself, is yet to pronounce on the
vote.

Mbeki, Obasanjo and Howard were at the Commonwealth meeting in
Australialast month tasked with deciding what action to take against
Zimbabwe if thevote was found not to be free and fair.

In terms of
the group's mandate, action against Zimbabwe could range fromcollective
disapproval to suspension.

ROBERT MUGABE was inaugurated yesterday as President of
Zimbabwe for anothersix years. He outlined a grim future, with policies
rooted in the blacknationalism of the 1960s, that will turn the country’s
back on connectionswith the West.He also used the occasion, two days
before a crucial Commonwealth meeting onZimbabwe, to condemn the reports of
election observer groups that hadconcluded that last week’s presidential
elections were neither free norfair.

“They want to choose who shall
rule Zimbabwe and if the person who they havechosen lost and another wins,
then the election has not been free and fair,”Mr Mugabe said, in his first
public comment on the election since the resultwas announced on
Wednesday.

The Commonwealth observers’ report has issued some of the most
severecriticism of the violence, repression and bureaucratic manipulation
thattook place before and during the voting.

President Mbeki of South
Africa and President Obasanjo of Nigeria are duehere today for talks with Mr
Mugabe before they meet as a Commonwealthtroika with John Howard, the
Australian Prime Minister, tomorrow.

The “Mugabe-bashing” in the Western
world would not end with Zimbabwe, MrMugabe told African leaders: “It should
be understood it is not Zimbabwealone they have in mind, it is other African
countries they have in mind.”

Godfrey Chidyausiku, the Chief Justice, in
a shoulder-length horsehair wigand scarlet robes modelled on those of the
English judiciary, administeredthe oath of office. White-gloved heads of the
Armed Forces, bedecked withmedals and sashes and carrying ceremonial swords,
swore their allegiance tohim while traditional chiefs in white pith helmets
applauded. A 21-gunsalute sounded and four Chinese-built MiG fighter jets of
the Zimbabwean AirForce swept past. The US and EU ambassadors in Zimbabwe
were not invited tothe inauguration and the opposition’s 57 MPs stayed
away.

“No, no, never will Zimbabwe be a colony,” Mr Mugabe, 78, said. He
returnedto violent rhetoric against the alleged “blatant racism” of Tony
Blair’sGovernment and its “white allies”.

“That ugly head that we
thought we had smashed through our anti-colonialstruggle, no, we left it
alive and it is rearing again, perhaps calling foranother much more
devastating blow to the head, no longer to the body ofthat monster,” he
said.

Mr Mugabe reeled off a string of promises to end critical food
shortages,introduce an economic recovery programme to boost manufacturing,
mining andagricultural output and to restore the collapsed currency and cut
inflation,which is now 120 per cent.

However, when he spoke in the
Shona vernacular to his supporters in costumesdecorated with prints of his
face, his strategy became clearer. He wouldensure that “all our people are
able to run factories”, he said. “We don’twant them to be just workers, we
want them to run the economy. In Africa,the black skin is the most important
skin, not the white skin. In Africa theAfrican is supreme.”

During
the election campaign Mr Mugabe had promised the final dispossessionof
white-owned land and redistribution among blacks, complemented
bynationalisation of mining and industry and further price controls
thateconomists say are responsible for wide-ranging shortages of basic
andluxury commodities to all but the wealthy few.

“Growth will be
restored as investment above all by Zimbabweans, and thereare many
Zimbabweans, so Zimbabweans must stay here to invest in theeconomy,” he
said.

The economic recovery programme would address “issues of
economicempowerment and indigenisation” and ensure “preferential treatment
forindigenous businesses with government tenders”.

AFTER being sworn in yesterday as president of Zimbabwe,
Robert Mugabeboasted that the Zimbabwean people had triumphed over
Britishneo-colonialism and he declared: "The land reform programme must
proceedwith greater speed and strength".

Rober Mugabe: 'The land
reform must proceed with greater speed and strength'"We have dealt a
stunning blow to imperialism," he added, saying that byexercising their
sovereign right to determine their destiny, the Zimbabweanpeople had said
"loudly to those in Europe, no, no, never, never again shallZimbabwe be a
colony".

"Mugabe-bashing has become an obsession, particularly in Britain
andparticularly in No 10 Downing Street," he said.

The inauguration,
which in the past had been held at Harare's nationalstadium, proved to be a
low-key affair at State House, with hundreds ofchairs empty as fighter
aircraft flew by and a 21-gun salute boomed out.

Britain and its European
partners, along with America, Australia, NewZealand and Canada, who were
among the many critics to denounce the electionas unacceptably flawed,
declined invitations to be present at theswearing-in ceremony.

Though
the presidents of several African countries - Namibia, Mozambique,Tanzania,
Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo - attended, PresidentOlesugun
Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africastayed
away.

They will be in Harare today to discuss with Mr Mugabe the scathing
reporton the election by the Commonwealth observer mission.

The pair
are members of a "troika" appointed at the Commonwealth summitearlier this
month, along with John Howard, the Australian prime minister,who will meet
in London tomorrow to decide whether the 54-member body shouldsanction
Zimbabwe or expel it from the Commonwealth.

Mr Mbeki will make a
last-ditch attempt to persuade Mr Mugabe to accept agovernment of national
unity in Zimbabwe or "step down with dignity".

He will also tell the
Zimbabwean leader that unless he moves swiftly toreconcile his deeply
divided country, his disputed election victory willreduce to ashes Africa's
international credibility.

Mr Mbeki has been under intense international
pressure during the weekend toabandon his "quiet diplomacy" approach to the
Mugabe regime.

Diplomats said US, Britain and other European leaders had
told Mr Mbeki thatit was time to get tough with Mr Mugabe.

Both Mr
Blair and President Bush are reported to have emphasised in
personaltelephone calls to Mr Mbeki that economic aid and foreign investment
inAfrica have been put under threat by the continent's apparent acceptance
ofa patently flawed presidential election in Zimbabwe.

The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, whose leader MorganTsvangirai has accused Mr
Mugabe of stealing the election, repeated itsassertions that there had been
widespread malpractices during the electionprocess itself apart from the
intimidation that preceded it.

Priscilla Misihairabwi, the national
election agent for the MDC, said shecollected documents from the the
government-controlled Electoral SupervisoryCommission and its figures varied
considerably from those released by theRegistrar General, Dr Tobias
Mudede.

"We were suspicious as we seemed to be getting different numbers
from ourpolling agents to those which were announced," she said.

The
MDC's secretary general, Professor Welshman Ncube, said yesterday: "Thisis
just one area of electoral malpractice. Our urgent demand is that
thepresidential elections be held again, and be supervised by the
UnitedNations or the Commonwealth."

Mr Mugabe's militant supporters
clearly anticipated his pledge yesterday tospeed up land seizures by driving
away Ian Kay, an MDC supporter, and hiswife Kerry along with 80 workers from
their farm 45 miles south-east ofHarare, on Saturday.

The Kays,
unlike many white farmers, continued publicly to support the MDCafter land
invasions began in February 1990. Witnesses say the Zanu PF flagwas raised
above their looted home.

The Commercial Farmers' Union said yesterday
that another 44 white farmerswould be charged today in connection with
assistance given to the MDC duringthe election. These farmers, from the
Raffingora area, north of Harare havebeen in hiding since police let it be
known they were wanted and would bearrested.

Some 56 farmers,
including their wives, are now facing charges since thestart of voting on
March 9. More than 150 white farmers have been chargedwith offences in the
last two years. So far not one has been brought totrial.

Roy Bennett,
an MDC MP in the eastern Manicaland Province, said yesterdaythat the purge
against MDC election support staff and supporters wasreaching "grotesque"
levels.

"People are being attacked, one man was killed in my area, many
are beaten,and many houses have been burned down. This is not going to
stop."

HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, was
hastily sworn inSunday in a small ceremony less than a week after he
declared victory in anelection most observers say was rigged.Mr.
Mugabe's tenuous claim to the presidency was evident even in his rushedand
modest inauguration. He has typically favored huge stadium-style eventswith
cheering crowds and lines of foreign dignitaries. This year, theinauguration
was moved forward by almost two weeks and was open only toinvited guests.
Conspicuously absent from the ceremony were Movement forDemocratic Change
(MDC) parliamentarians, who boycotted the event.Mr. Mugabe's first public
address since the controversial election lastweekend was an odd mixture of
the fiery, anti-Western rhetoric of hiscampaign and calls for reconciliation
and rebuilding. In one sentence, hecalled for the opposition MDC to work
with his ruling ZANU-PF in Parliament;in the next, he pledged to purge the
civil service of opposition supporters.

The centerpiece of Mr. Mugabe's
speech, however, was a pledge to fix thecountry's economy, which is
suffering from massive inflation, foodshortages, and widespread
unemployment. Yet rebuilding Zimbabwe's tatteredeconomy will be difficult
without the help of the international community,which is largely skeptical
of Mugabe's claim to power. A number ofcountries, including the United
States and Canada, have already said theywill offer no more aid to the
Southern African country until truly free andfair elections are
held.

"What we've got is not an economic problem, it's a political
problem," saysTony Hawkins, director of the Graduate School of Management at
theUniversity of Zimbabwe. "Until you get the politics right, the economy
isnot going to get better."

Economists say Zimbabwe will require the
help of the internationalcommunity, particularly Western countries and
international financialinstitutions like the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank, if ithopes to turn its economy around.

"This situation is
not going to get any better without an internationalbailout of some sort.
That means debt relief and IMF funding, among otherthings," says Mr.
Hawkins. "But that's not going to happen under agovernment the international
community sees as illegitimate."

Zimbabwe was once one of the region's
most prosperous countries, but in fiveyears has lost more than one-third its
annual production. Winding food linesare now a common sight in a country
that once fed much of Southern Africa.

But Mugabe seems to be saying that
Zimbabweans can repair their economywithout international help. "Growth will
be restored as investment – by,above all, Zimbabweans themselves – is
deliberately and systematicallyembarked upon in all sectors," Mugabe said
Sunday.

Also of concern to economists is Mugabe's apparent resolve to
continue hisland-reform program. During the election, the 78-year-old leader
promised tofinish the revolution begun with Zimbabwe's independence by
redistributingwhite-owned commercial farmland to landless
blacks.

"Land reform is not merely an exercise in rectifying a monstrous
colonialinjustice, vital and necessary as that may be," said Mugabe in
hisinauguration speech. "The resettlement program has also been an
opportunityto unleash the sprit of self-reliance and creativity of our
people."

In the two years since Mr. Mugabe launched his land program,
Zimbabwe'sagricultural productivity has fallen by about one-third. A severe
droughthas contributed to the decline, but economists say the greater
problem isthat small-scale, subsistence farmers are simply not as productive
as thecommercial farmers they are replacing.

But after basing his
campaign on the promise of land, few think Mugabe cannow abandon his land
program. The best that can be hoped for, they say, isthat the president is
forced to accept a new, truly free election.

"The option now facing my
president is to be buried in a dishonorable graveor an honorable grave,"
says Masipula Sithole, professor of politicalscience at the University of
Zimbabwe. "If Mugabe acts now, at the lastminute, and allows free elections,
he can still be buried in an honorablegrave."

The MDC has so far done
nothing to contest the election results, althoughthere has been talk of a
national strike. But Professor Sithole believesthey may not need to. The
current situation, he says, is unsustainable.

"This is one instance where
it will come from the bottom up. Nobody willhave to call for stay-aways and
strikes. The people will spontaneouslystrike or start food riots. Nobody
will call the people to do it," he says.

If, however, Zimbabwe continues
on its current path, the consequences arelikely to be dire.

"You'll
get a situation where it just slides into subsistence level," saysHawkins.
"You'll have a breakdown in law and order in the common sense. Itwill become
a real wild-West-type place."

------------------------------------------------------------------- ZIMBABWEAN
LEADER STOPS SHORT OF GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY TALK IN RARESHOW OF
TOLERANCEHarare Correspondent

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe
appealed yesterday to his fiercepolitical rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, to bury
the hatchet and joins hands, butstopped short of calling for a government of
national unity ahead of today'stalks with key African leaders.

At his
inauguration ceremony at state house, Mugabe, in a rare show oftolerance,
extended the olive branch to Tsvangirai and his Movement forDemocratic
Change (MDC) party, saying that Zimbabweans should unite andreconstruct
their country as they have a "common destiny".

"You (MDC) must work
together with us," he said.

The reconciliatory gesture, which contrasts
sharply with recent outrightrejection by some of his colleagues of the idea
of a government of nationalunity, is the first sign that he might agree to
an SA-inspired plan forpowersharing with Tsvangirai as international
pressure intensifies.

Two of Africa's heavy hitters, SA's Thabo Mbeki and
Nigeria's OlusegunObasanjo, arrive for last-ditch talks with Mugabe today in
a bid to head offpunitive action by the Commonwealth.

The two, who
will discuss the plan of a government of national unity today,fly to London
tomorrow for talks with John Howard of Australia on whataction the
Commonwealth the observers of which have criticised last week'spoll as
unfree and unfair should take against Harare.

Mugabe's remarks also come
against almost universal indignation at hisvictory, widely seen as stolen.
Unions, affiliates of the MDC, are planningmass action against the poll's
results.

Signalling their determination to have the government of
national unity planaccepted, Mbeki and Obasanjo are also due to hold
separate talks withTsvangirai.

Tsvangirai, who has rejected Mugabe's
victory, met Southern African Development Community chairman Bakili Muluzi
and Mozambique's Joachim Chissano overthe government of national unity issue
the groundwork for today's talks.

Despite the MDC's boycott of his
ceremony, Mugabe sounded conciliatorythroughout it. He said Zimbabweans
should come together instead of plottingeach other's demise. "The serious
espousal of the ideal of national unityand spirit of brotherhood will inject
correct doses of love and fervour intoour relationships hitherto soured by
hostility and anguish," he said.

Mugabe sought to stir nationalist
sentiment to drive home his appeal. "Ifyou are Zimbabwean you will always
be. If sanctions are imposed on us theywill not discriminate between the MDC
and Zanu (PF) supporters. We will allsuffer. If there are shortages
everybody suffers. Let's not draw back intoour little shells. We want to
work with the MDC in parliament and outside."

MDC
spokesman Nkanyiso Maqeda said: "How can somebody who only last week
wasterrorising our people and insulting our leadership as proteges of
foreignpowers invite us into his politically bankrupt government and expect
us totake him serious ly? When did he discover that we as Zimbabweans have
commoninterests? We won't waste our time working with a failed leader and
hisfossilised government."

But Mugabe said that it was impossible to
avoid each other. "As they say inSA simunye' we are one," he
said.

Maqeda said: "Does Mugabe seriously want to suggest that, until
today, hedid not know that we have a common destiny. We won't allow him to
buypolitical legitimacy through empty and populist rhetoric."

As
always, Mugabe thanked Africans for their support, but lambasted
westernleaders for interfering in Zimbabwean politics.

"You certainly
have been able to see how Britain and its white allies haveblatantly sought
to ensure that this presidential election be won by theirprotege and not by
me and Zanu (PF). But thanks to the people of Zimbabwefor loudly saying No!
No!'

"Never again shall Zimbabwe be a colony. I thank them for their
resoluteanti-imperialist stand."

Mugabe launches attack on Western imperialism
President Robert Mugabe, who was sworn in for another six-year term on Sunday, urged fellow Zimbabweans and his African neighbours to join his fight against Western imperialism, the Washington Post reported.
Mugabe, 78, took the oath of office at the colonial State House mansion despite assertions by both the EU and US that the elections were flawed. The government and Mugabe's ruling party have been widely accused of rigging votes, orchestrating state-backed political violence and abusing the nation's laws and constitution. Mugabe said that it will not be Britain and its "white allies", who will decide upon the future of the country, but Zimbabwe itself.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the election was marked by "numerous, profound irregularities" and that the outcome thwarted the will of the people. But many African leaders supported Mugabe's election victory in what was seen as an effort to maintain regional stability and protect their own regimes.
President Mugabe also said his land reform programme of changing white-owned farms to black ownership must proceed with greater speed and strength. Up to ten white farmers were killed, the last case today on Monday, since President Robert Mugabe's supporters began seizing white-owned farms two years ago, RTE said.
Diplomatic efforts are under way in order to avert the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. Tomorrow a meeting in Harare is expected to take place between the leaders of Africa's two most powerful countries and Mugabe. The aim is to reach a compromise before Tuesday's "troika" meeting of Commonwealth leaders in London, who have been asked to devise a response to the election, Unison said.
Written by Sharon Spiteri
Edited by Blake Evans-Pritchard

A debate in the National Assembly on a parliamentary report on last week's
Zimbabwean presidential elections is expected to take place tomorrow morning.

The debate - which was scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoon - is
now, according to parliamentary sources, likely to take place ahead of a meeting
between President Thabo Mbeki and his Commonwealth counterparts, Australian
Prime Minister John Howard and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who must
forge a Commonwealth position on Zimbabwe in the wake of the disputed poll.

They meet in London tomorrow.

The multi-party parliamentary team which monitored last week's presidential
elections was meeting in the ANC chief whip's office this morning. The chief
whip Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula headed the team.

It is understood that opposition parties on the committee - including the
Democratic Alliance, the Pan Africanist Congress, the New National Party, the
African Christian Democratic Party and the United Democratic Movement - want the
reference to substantially free and fair dropped as a description of the poll.

Earlier, Mbeki arrived in Harare to hold talks with President Robert Mugabe.
He and Obasanjo are to meet opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as well.

An international team of churchmen invited to observe the
presidential elections said they were unable to confirm that the process was
"universal, transparent, fair or free". In a statement released last week, the
group – drawn from the World Council of Churches and the All African Conference
of Churches – set out their conclusions on the universality, transparency,
secrecy, freedom, and fairness of the vote. Noting that the voting in Harare
"became a sad experience", the group said that the dignity of the voters had
been violated, with pregnant women and others enduring the mismanagement for
days. The restriction of postal voting to "a limited and preferred group" had
also disenfranchised many voters, such as teachers, who had been forced from
their constituencies. While saying that voting and counting had been conducted
"technically according to the procedures" at almost all the polling stations
they had visited, the statement pointed out that only 109 local church observers
had been accepted, out of 2650 who had applied for accreditation. The fairness
of the campaign had been severely limited by the state media monopoly, the
disenfranchisement of Harare voters, the supplementary voters roll, the dual
citizenship issue, and the many cases of intimidation which the group observed.
But the most serious problem were cases of political violence before and during
the voting, "the clear majority of which should be blamed on the ruling
party".

The United States embassy in Harare has turned down a visa
application to travel to the US by Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of Zimbabwe National
Army commander, Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga, on the grounds that she
appears on Washington's list of Zanu PF and government officials who have been
targeted for personal sanctions. Chiwenga was to have travelled to Las Vegas on
Tuesday to attend an international hunting show. She said she planned to use the
show to promote trophy hunting on her Kazungula hunting concession where she has
a lodge. The concession, situated 180 km west of Victoria Falls, is funded by US
businessman Don Bower, who also has other hunting concessions in Nyamandhlovu,
Beitbridge and Tanzania. The Standard is informed that the trophy hunts are
being coordinated by the department of national parks which intends to recruit
war veterans as professional hunters to assist prospective international
hunters. Chiwenga on Friday refused to discuss the failed visa application.
"Haikona kundinetsa. Endai munotaura neve kuEmbassy vacho vanokupai makuhwa
iwawo. Zvamunoita hazviite izvozvo." (Do not bother me. Go and speak to the
Embassy people who gave you that information. I do not like what you are doing),
she told The Standard. Two weeks ago, Chiwenga confirmed she had bought air
tickets to travel to the US to attend the Safari International Convention in Las
Vegas.

The leaders of two key African nations have held separate
talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his political opponent Morgan
Tsvangirai in an effort to resolve the crisis created by his disputed election
victory.

The responsibility to solve the problems of food shortages
and economy, rest first and foremost with the leadership of Zimbabwe

Thabo Mbeki

South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian
counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo declined to comment on the specific nature of the
talks, but there is speculation that they were exploring the possibility of a
power-sharing arrangement with the opposition MDC.

The South African and Nigerian presidents are flying to London for a meeting
with Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday to decide whether Zimbabwe
should be suspended from the Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's main trade union Monday called a three-day general
strike starting on Wednesday to protest against what they described as the
post-election harassment of workers.

Earlier on Monday, a white farmer was shot dead near his homestead - the
tenth such killing since militants began often violent occupations of
white-owned land two years ago.

Food crisis

In a brief press conference after the talks, Mr Obasanjo said it was up to
Zimbabwe's political leaders to resolve the current situation in Zimbabwe in
order to prevent further violence and chaos.

"Whatever the
ordinary people of Zimbabwe have done, voted or not voted, they need to be
assisted," he said.

"That help may not come unless the leaders of Zimbabwe put their arms
together and work together in a way that brings hope in this country."

Mr Mbeki also acknowledged that Zimbabwe's impending economic crisis had been
discussed.

"It is really time that the responsibility to solve the problems of Zimbabwe
- the problems of food shortages and economy - rest first and foremost with the
leadership of Zimbabwe," he said.

Differing reports

As he left for the meeting in London, Mr Howard said this was "quite a moment
of truth.

"The Commonwealth has been held together by a number of things and one of
them has been a common commitment to democracy.

"We have to face, fairly and squarely, the responsibility we've been given,"
he said.

Commonwealth observers issued an interim report condemning Zimbabwe's
election, which has also been criticised by the United States, the European
Union and the UK.

However, many national African monitoring teams described the result as fair.

No compromise

Senior aides to Mr Obasanjo were quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying
the Nigerian leader was unlikely to back Zimbabwe's suspension.

For his part, the South African president said on
Saturday that, while Zimbabwe's fate would have to be decided by Zimbabweans,
the outside world did have a right and duty to speak out about what was
happening there.

South Africa's position on Zimbabwe is particularly important, partly because
it has political weight and economic leverage - it is the most powerful economy
in southern Africa and it supplies Zimbabwe's fuel and power.